W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. Sells 600 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. reduced its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 40.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 892 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 600 shares during the period. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $415,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,128,233,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares in the last quarter. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $468,360,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $386,957,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. Argus upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $518.80.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $459.41 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $467.15 and its 200-day moving average is $457.93. The firm has a market cap of $216.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.92. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.85 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the sale, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Linde

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Pacific. It offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene.